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The arraignment of accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four top Al Qaeda lieutenants opened Saturday in a heavily guarded island courtroom with the so-called “Gitmo 5” launching a silent protest, refusing to cooperate, listen to translations or even answer fundamental questions about a process that could end their lives. The long-awaited trial began with defense lawyers speaking for the alleged terrorists and arguing that the protest was over their clients’ anger about alleged CIA torture and mistreatment at the prison on the southern rim of Cuba. … (Updated at 10:14 a.m., May 5:) Three hours into the...

The American Civil Liberties Union has an amusing full-page ad in the New York Times today (p. 8 of the Week in Review section). It morphs a photo of their onetime favorite, Barack Obama into...George W. Bush! What has President Obama done to deserve this comparison, the greatest insult the left has its disposal? “Many of us are shocked and concerned that right now, President Obama is considering reversing his attorney general’s decision to try the 9/11 defendants in criminal court.” Well, get ready for more shock and concern, ACLUers -- it’s going to happen. President Obama (aided by his...

Here's a photo of the ad in the Sunday NY Times of the ACLU going after Obama for possible reversal of the KSM trial.. Anytime the left is upset, it's a victory for America...(Foxnews video report)

The Obama administration's potential reversal on the decision to try the alleged plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks in civilian court could land the suspects back at a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere, a scenario that is already infuriating the left. The Obama administration's potential reversal on the decision to try the alleged plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks in civilian court could land the suspects back at a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere, a scenario that is already infuriating the left.  That's to be expected. A source familiar with the review told Fox News the...

President Obama has stated all along that the decision to move the 9/11 terror trials of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and friends to a civilian court in New York City, has been Eric Holder's and Eric Holder's alone. It is very hard to comprehend that a politically explosive decision like that was made without the approval of the President. But placing the blame on Holder gives him cover for what apparently is coming next. Surprised by the continuing anger about moving the trials to a NY Civilian court WAPO is reporting that the trials may be moved back into the military...

Yesterday’s news that Barack Obama still intends to bring the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and other vicious Islamists to New York makes this little story an important story. Last week New York’s Corrections Department reported apprehending and arresting an officially credentialed Muslim Chaplin, who uses the name Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid, as he was attempting to smuggle a pair of scissors and three box cutter blades into its main facility in lower Manhattan. Had it not been for the sharp eyed professionalism of the Corrections Officers at the Manhattan Detention Complex, these dangerous weapons would have found their way into...

Changing the Zip Code of the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other terrorists from New York City to Somewhere, U.S.A. does not solve the problems a civilian trial raised in the first place. The decision does provide some justice because hundreds of millions of dollars in security costs will not be borne by the city that was the major victim of this terrorist quintet. But security and other issues do not disappear with new geography; they just move to the next location. Try Washington, D.C., where the federal courthouse is a mere bomb’s throw away from the House...

Now that President Barack Obama's administration is considering moving the Sept. 11 trial away from a courthouse in Manhattan, the question is: Where to? Legally, the Justice Department could choose a variety of locations in which to bring an indictment. There is no requirement that the trials of professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others be held in the places where the most victims died, experts said. Politically, though, the administration faces a bigger challenge. Though the Justice Department has yet to publicly back down from its plan to try the suspects in New York City, officials have...

... [L]ast November, the Justice Department announced that the terror trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed would be held in Manhattan. Almost everyone in New York rallied around. This was seen as standing up to terrorism. “It is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center, where so many New Yorkers were murdered,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Now everything’s flipped. The politicians are running for the hills, and the issue has been repackaged as standing up to traffic jams. “There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive,” said Bloomberg. And the Justice...

Reasons: 1) Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. 2) Puerto Rico has a U.S. federal court system as well as their Puerto Rico Supreme Court system (lower court). 3) Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens (and have been since 1917). A large percentage are fluent in English, and thus they would be able to serve as jurors. 4) Puerto Rico has ample hotel and motel accommodations for lawyers, media, gawkers, and the like. 5) Puerto Rico has a few U.S. military installations that could be used as venue or housing during the trial. The mere fact that this is an island...

For the first time, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has spoken out against plans to stage the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, at the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, joining a growing chorus of people who believe the epic trial will be too disruptive and expensive for the city. “It would be great if the federal government could find a site that didn’t cost a billion dollars, which using downtown will,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

Two Senate Democrats are pressuring the Obama administration to move Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s trial out of New York City and into a military commission. Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Jim Webb of Virginia signed on to a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder condemning the administration’s November announcement of a criminal trial in Manhattan. “Your decision to prosecute enemy combatants captured on foreign battlefields like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is without precedent in our nation’s history,” the senators wrote. “Given the risks and costs, it is far more logical, cost-effective, and strategically wise to try Khalid...

The Bloomberg administration has placed the price for security operations for the trials of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other terrorism suspects connected to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at more than $200 million a year, which would make it by far the costliest security operation for a single event in the city in recent memory. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg outlined the city’s projected security expenses in a two-page letter that was sent on Tuesday to Peter R. Orszag, the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget. The letter, which seeks federal reimbursement for the full costs of...

The chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, Representative Ike Skelton, cast doubt on Friday about the Obama administration's decision to try the September 11, 2001, conspirators in a U.S. criminal court. Skelton, a fellow Democrat of President Barack Obama, asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to brief the committee about the decision to use the criminal courts instead of the revamped military commissions. "As a former prosecutor, I am not yet convinced that the right decision was made in these cases, nor that the presumption in favor of federal criminal trials over military...

Fifty-one percent (51%) of U.S. voters oppose the Obama administration’s decision to try the confessed chief planner of the 9/11 attacks and other suspected terrorists in a civilian court in New York City. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 29% of voters favor the president’s decision not to try the suspects by military tribunal at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba where they are now imprisoned. Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure whether it was the right decision or not. Only 30% of Americans said suspected terrorists should have access to U.S. courts, while 54% favored...

Gov. David A. Paterson on Monday criticized the Obama administration’s decision to try five men linked to the Sept. 11 attacks in a civilian court in Manhattan. His comments made him one of a few Democrats to take that stand and underscored his schism with the White House. “This is not a decision that I would have made,” the governor said. “New York was very much the epicenter of that attack; over 2,700 lives were lost.” “It’s very painful,” he added. “We’re still having trouble getting over it. We still have been unable to rebuild that site, and having those...

The government will have to choose between vigorous prosecution and revealing classified sources and methods. This is a prosecutorial decision as well as a national security decision," President Barack Obama said last week about the attorney general's announcement that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al Qaeda operatives will be put on trial in New York City federal court. No, it is not. It is a presidential decision—one about the hard, ever-present trade-off between civil liberties and national security. Trying KSM in civilian court will be an intelligence bonanza for al Qaeda and the hostile nations that will view the U.S....